This is who we are?

What the actual frick?

A guy is connected to a terrorist organization (in a guilty by association sort of way), loses his residency, and is deported. All without due process 

And lil Marco defends it as something necessary. 

Wow. We suck. And we are truly failing people, and treating no one with dignity, apparently. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marco-rubio-mahmoud-khalil-arrest-face-the-nation/

That qualifies as an oops...

Here's a cautionary tale of how bad actors can infiltrate our lives through something innocuous - and that can spread in a terrible way.

The short summary is that a guy downloaded a piece of software from the internet to his home computer.  It had a trojan horse buried in it, and that allowed someone access to any and all personal information he had stored on it - and that wound up carrying over to his logins at the Walt Disney company, where they suffered a data breach as an end result. (and of course, we all heard about that breach, but not how it came to be)

The FBI got involved, and it was a whole thing.

Its such a strange world we live in...

And it should serve as a reminder to never download anything you don't trust from the interwebs.

https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal/the-download-that-led-to-a-massive-hack-at-disney/50791f04-b675-4e9e-a033-7c4d37cd523b

It’s a non stop assault on everything

Mr Trump has made several decisions and issued orders that have drawn a rebuke from the courts, ie the judicial a branch. 

That is their job. To provide part of the checks and balances on the executive branch. 

However, Mr Trump has decided that he simply doesn't care, and doesn't have to listen to them as only his actions matter. 

When it comes to the alien enemies acts, he is misapplying the context to suit his actions. 

And as another branch of government (ie the legislative branch, using basic civics) you are the third part of the checks and balances.  

It is your sworn duty to uphold the constitution.

When Mr Trump does something that oversteps the bounds of his office, or in this case misapplies acts created by the legislature (even if it was before your time) you need to hold him to account for it. 

And when he violates his oath of office, and ignores the constitution, then it is your job to remove him from office. 

That is what our founding fathers set forth in the document you swore an allegiance to. 

Do not let him act like a king or tyrant. 

Do your job and support the judicial branch in calling out his actions. 

This sh*t is getting serious

Last week, we heard from Mr. Trump a plan to weaponize the DOJ.  He outright said that everyone must do as he says and he plans to go after anyone who opposes him. He's said he wants people arrested for simply "being mean to him"

Is this enough for you to actually take action?  You can't stand idly by and let him pull from the dictator's playbook.  I expect you to represent Americans and call out this sort of unacceptable and un-American behavior.

Natural disasters

During the election cycle, T-rump told us that in order to get federal funds for disaster relief, everyone had to kiss the proverbial ring (which in this case, is affixed to his voluminous buttocks).  

California's governor would have to apologize to him, and agree to certain things if they wanted any sort of funds for disaster relief, related to their fires.  Because, after all, its all about him.

And he also said that FEMA was wasteful and he wanted to do away.with it, because why would he want to help anyone?

Since he moved back into the oval office, there have been a great number of calamities in "red states" - from fires, to tornadoes, to floods.  People have been left homeless and somewhat helpless.

And of course, the response from T-rump has been mostly crickets. He did have some limited thoughts about some of it, but not much.  FEMA won't be arriving.  And they'll have to wait on federal aid ... until .... who knows?

The governors of the states impacted are really not sure how to act,  When you hear them, they say confusing things about the need for help and don't want to disturb dear leader as he continues his assault on everything to make government "more efficient" (?).  They're taking care of their people! (even if they aren't)

And so their residents suffer.  

Meanwhile, there's another side to this too.  These disasters are happening with an alarming frequency, where they used to be more sporadic. Gutting agencies that study this, cutting off funding on how to help understand and combat these things, and burying your head in the sand and saying "climate change isn't real" will only make matters worse as these things become more frequent and we move closer to a 3rd world country.

And the hits just keep on coming (health edition)

Last week, the uninformed idiot in charge of Health and Human Services (who banks on nothing but his name, and whose brain was apparently totally consumed by the brain eating amoeba), decided to tell us that some things are bad for us and we need to get healthy again.

Now I'll grant you that in general, he's right.  We have too much processed food, artificial dyes are bad, and generally we need to combat chronic illnesses.

But its the details that are at issue here,  He's telling everyone - from his position of power - that vaccines are bad (with nothing to back that up other than the voices in his head), and he wants to change how they are approved and distributed.

He's already given some hair-brained theory that the measles outbreak can be thwarted by making sure children have enough Vitamin A.  Which is dangerous, reckless, and stupid.  If only there was a very long-tested, effective, and safe alternative that essentially previously eradicated measles (but which some celebrity types decided to be vocal against) that we could use.... 

And then there was this week's photo op, and plea for a free meal.  He went on about how seed oils are bad, and some nut and vegetable oils, too.  And the science suggests that maybe he's right, so, please, do go on... 

He then proceeded to say that animal fats are good, and better than these other types of plant-based things.   Which the science does not support, but why does that matter?  The amoeba told him so!  

If you are moving away from animal products for personal health reasons, or you don't trust that the animal products we consume are safe, or perhaps you just care about animal welfare. then this is perhaps a little more egregious.  It feels like a nod to the cattle industry to a large degree.  

Anyway, the company Steak N Shake proudly announced that they would "make their fries RFKd"  and that prompted a visit from the man who sat down and had a burger and fries while being interviewed by faux news.  (his plea for a free meal paid off!)

The other side of this story is that Steak N Shake grew during the 90s and had many stores east of the Mississippi.   They touted themselves as serving "steakburgers"  and I would argue that they had a quality product.  But then, recessions hit, they changed their model to be more affordable chain to compete with the likes of McDonalds.  Their quality suffered, and they shuttered a large number of stores.  And recently they've been on the verge of bankruptcy.

But opportunity struck.  All they had to do was say they'd go along with what the guy said, and they'd get a ton of free advertising.  Sure, it might alienate some diners, but when you're looking for any hope, you take that risk.

Opportunistic company meet amoeba man!

The company may have bought themselves a little time, but their trajectory still isn't good.

No one actually wins here.  But yet, we all lose.

At least the memes were epic.  For example:

 

flori-doge?

Read an article yesterday about our governors desire to create a sort of doge to find inefficiencies. (like spending tax payer dollars on migrant flights NOT IN Florida-duh?) But the amusing part is that the legislature does not want this. 

They are Republican controlled and have been for about 30 years. Their fear is that the light will be shone upon their wastefulness and residents might not take kindly to knowing that things aren't so good BECAUSE of them.

It's almost comical.